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Most of the awesome software running the WWW is running in tightly sealed compartments, hidden away from our sight.

Imagine being able to see Google's search engine source code. That'd be truly something.

Unfortunately market forces are still pretty much in control of much of the world's most interesting software.

I've not seen it, but I'd be willing to bet their search engine code is a mess.

The reason for this: almost all single purpose software is a complete disaster area. (And a massive proportion of other stuff isn't much better). As long as it works within certain parameters then there really is no need to fix it up.

except that Google's algorithms are being constantly tweaked and improved. Crap code is only left alone as is when it won't be touched anymore. If the code being crap makes your day to day hard, the best bet would be to refactor (given that you have the money and time, which Google has).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com